Just back from Paris. Big scarves. Bad driving. Certain Parisians like to dress as Fulhamites weekending in the Cotswolds – all Barbour, Grenson and red corduroy – and until recently this is where they got their clothes. Old England was an Anglophile gents outfitters on Boulevard Des Capucines, as familiar a landmark as the nearby opera house. The shop now lies empty, the decades-old fittings presumably in an architectural salvage yard in the banlieue. This picture shows how it was about 7 years ago. Incidentally, It’s the first image I sold professionally.

In a pleasing cross-channel echo of the posters found at Notting Hill Tube station a year or two back, behind those mirrors were a palimpsest of long-forgetten fragments of playbills and adverts. Old England opened in 1867, though some of the designs look later to me. Might there be a Lautrec under there?

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About teninchwheels

Designer, photographer and Vespa-fixated pub bore. Born in Yorkshire, living in that London these past 20 years. Get in touch at teninchwheels@gmail.com, especially if you'd like to send me some free beer.